On late Friday night, when most people are winding down from the work week, a group of Evanstonians is just beginning its assignments.
The Council of Elders Pops and Moms, more familiarly known as C.O.E. Pops/C.O.E. Moms, has been a familiar sight on the west and south sides of Evanston for six years. Each Friday night, and other days as well, the group works with dozens of disadvantaged Evanston youths.
Although their services have grown tremendously, the group is best known for the C.O.E. Pops` night patrols around Evanston, in which volunteers try to intervene with trouble-bound boys and girls.
For about a year, the C.O.E. Pops have patroled only Friday evenings-and not even every Friday, but often just when they think something might be going on or the police alert them to a potential problem. When the group began in 1983, there were patrols Friday and Saturday evenings.
”Mainly we`re out there to keep the peace, to give the kids some guidance and to keep them out of trouble,” says Jonathan Walker, a volunteer who is a retired marine.
C.O.E. Pops/C.O.E. Moms consider themselves an extended family who aim to reach every disadvantaged youth. The C.O.E. Moms, who do not patrol, lead the youth in a number of other activities ranging from jump rope competitions to bake sales.
”Our message is: `We love you regardless of what you do,` ” says member Richard Johnson, a retired truck driver.
When they meet the youths, group members use words, not weapons. ”We get out and talk with the kids,” says member Roscoe Pryor, a retired house painter. ”For example, the police may ask these kids to move on, and they won`t. So we talk to them and try to get them out of the way. Sometimes they listen, sometimes they don`t.”
The volunteers patrol two to a car and are identified by caps, shirts and jackets printed with the group`s name. Working with police, they patrol an area bounded by Howard Street on the south, Dodge Avenue on the west, Simpson Street on the north and the lake.
The group doesn`t patrol during certain hours-there`s no set starting or ending time, Walker says. ”We patrol until everything is quiet.”
Their ”watch” also is not limited to the official Friday night one. ”A lot of times we`ll just be going to the grocery store on our own and we`ll check something out,” Walker says.
The group was started in the summer of 1983 in the west central area, after an Evanston youth was beaten to death in a gang-related attack. Horrified and frustrated, local parents proposed a network of neighborhood adults whose purpose would be twofold: They would patrol their streets in an attempt to hinder potential gang problems, and they would serve as ”community elders” by redirecting youth activity.
”Originally we got into this because there was so much happening a few years ago,” Walker says. ”Almost every other day, somebody would get shot or stabbed. And these were our kids. When I say `our kids,` I don`t mean black or white, I mean our community kids.
”So we decided that as adults, we needed to get more involved with our children with what we now call an extended family.”
Programming has grown steadily the last few years. ”It has evolved from a neighborhood watch program to a wide range of services,” says Donald Colleton, an attorney who serves as the group`s vice president. ”We have a heavy, heavy focus on the Friday night drop-in center at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center.”
Friday activities began in September, 1984, at the center, 1655 Foster Ave. Over the years, they have included leather crafting, break-dancing, tumbling, dominoes and instruction in double-Dutch jump rope.
The group uses the activity sessions to build one-on-one relationships, promote education and enlarge what disadvantaged youth see as limited life opportunities, Colleton says.
”We teach the kids how to share with each other and respect one another,” Johnson says. ”We`ve got some kids who don`t believe in sharing. They`ll tell you to go to hell. So a lot of our work has to do with respectability.”
”We teach them that if you want to get you have to give,” Walker says.
”We try to instill certain morals and values. And we try to act the same way among each other and let the kids see that-grown-ups can get along.”
There are about two dozen core group members, with dozens of other adults who volunteer occasionally. The volunteers include attorneys, local businessmen, teachers and retirees.
Volunteer Don Kurbat, 54, an office copier salesman, teaches leather crafts several Friday nights each month.
Kurbat became a member through the Evanston Lighthouse Rotary, which also contributes to the C.O.E. Moms scholarship. Initially he coached basketball, but he wondered if the kids would be interested in his long-time hobby of making leather goods.
”I started bringing around this accumulated scrap leather on Friday nights, and the kids just loved it,” Kurbat says. ”I feel guilty now if I miss a Friday night. I walk in the front door, and I`m immediately surrounded. ”Initially, they made name braceles and key tags, and I thought they would tire of those quickly. But there must be thousands of name bracelets and key tags around Evanston nowadays.”
Kurbat says he teaches not only a craft but more important, life lessons: ”A lot of what we do is basic etiquette: learning to share, respect for others and working with others.”
Other C.O.E. Pops/C.O.E. Moms activities and projects include:
– A college scholarship fund, sponsored by the C.O.E. Moms. Awarded to one student a year, it is open to any student at Evanston Township High School. The amount varies each year.
– Annual youth enterprise activities, such as bake sales, in which children can produce small profits for themselves.
– A seasonal basketball league. ”We run that to help the kids towards further education,” Colleton says. Through the league, the coaches strongly emphasize school, and work with students to take their ACTs and to seek college placement, he adds.
– Chaperoning dances and parties.
– Volunteering at the reading center located in the now defunct Foster School, next to Fleetwood-Jourdain, and at a drop-in center at the Nichols Middle School, 800 Greenleaf St.
As the group increases its volunteer efforts, it continues to become an accepted alternative in Evanston, Colleton says.
”We are not a formal service-giving agency,” Colleton says. ”Part of the role that we have cut for ourselves is to help facilitate the good work of other agencies, such as the Evanston Recreation Department, local law enforcement officials and the ETHS placement officials. We`re looking for nontraditional ways to help deliver those services.”
The group`s endeavors have drawn attention from Evanston officials as well as residents. ”It`s a very positive program,” says Jim Gillespie, deputy chief of administrative services in the Evanston Police Department.
”It helps. By just being there, the (group`s) presence prevents problems.”
The patrol has become an accepted and respected fixture by community youths, members say. ”When the kids see me in church, they point and say,
`He`s a C.O.E. Pop,` ” says Clifton Heard, a retired factory employee.
”He`s been `Mr. Heard` for all his life in the community,” Walker says. ”Now they say, `Here comes C.O.E. Pop.` The kids have found the C.O.E. Pops are someone they can talk to and who really care about them. That opens a lot of channels” of communication. The biggest sign of respect is that the kids will talk to us, he adds.
The group seems to be making a dent, members say, citing that the regular patrols are down to Friday nights instead of Friday and Saturday. Gang activity and youth problems in Evanston also seem to be slightly decreasing. The number of gangs is down to two from a high of five a few years ago, Gillespie says, adding that membership in those remaining gangs also is down. ”We say, little by little, the number of kids taking a different path is increasing,” Colleton says. ”Plus the safety feature of our community environment is beginning to make a difference. When the kids come into the facility Friday night, they`ve got to respect each other. The risk of physical violence is nonexistent; it`s a safe harbor and a wholesome arena for the kids.
”Could this make a long-term difference? Yes, it could.”
The group also has won praise from outside the community. In 1987 it received the Governor`s Award for Home Town Excellence from the Illinois Development Council. The award is designed to recognize citizens who have made outstanding volunteer contributions to their communities.
But the biggest reward, group members say, is seeing youths whose lives have been turned around by the group.
”What makes you feel really good is when the (college kids) come back and stop the other kids (from getting into trouble),” Walker says. ”That`s a good feeling because you know you made a difference.”
”With kids now in their junior and senior years of college, now we`re replacing former gang role models with collegiate role models,” Kurbat says. Colleton cites a ”shining example”:
”Four or five years ago, we lost a guy who wound up having run-ins with the law. But he had a younger brother, a goofy guy who was just
uncontrollable, that (we worked with). That young man is now completing his junior year in college and will be the first of our kids to go to graduate school. And when he walks through the neighborhood, everybody envies him. People say, `I`d like to do what he did.` ”
Such a return on the group`s investment is immeasurable, he says.
”These kids are absolutely precious. They have as much potential as any other kid on any other block. And as intensively concerned and committed parents, we`d like to help them reach that potential.”
”It`s important for the kids to know that there are adults that really care about what happens to them,” adds Colleton`s wife, Jane, a C.O.E. Mom.
”The kids believe sincerely that you care about them.”
The C.O.E. Pops/C.O.E. Moms also would like to see parents get more involved. ”I would really like to see the day come that we wouldn`t have to be out there regularly,” Walker says. ”And the only way that would come about is for the parents to become more involved with their own kids.”
The group knows it still has a lot of work ahead. ”To some degree, we do have somewhat of a turnover,” Walker says. ”But don`t get me wrong-that element (of troubled kids) is out there and is much larger.”
But ”as long as we`re able to get up and walk and drive around, we will be out there sometime or another,” Johnson adds.
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For more information on C.O.E. Pops/C.O.E. Moms, call 866-8445 or 869-8459.
